Asegun Henry of MIT Wins the Alan T. Waterman Award from the National Science...
Asegun Henry, an associate professor of mechanical engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, is the recipient of the Alan T. Waterman Award from...
The First Black Woman to Be Named a Fellow of the Academy of Leisure...
Corliss Outley, professor in the department of parks, recreation, and tourism management and director of the Race, Ethnicity, Youth and Social Equity Collaboratory at Clemson University in South Carolina, is the first African American woman to be named a Fellow of the Academy of Leisure Sciences in its 43-year history.
Yale University Awards Degrees to Two of its First Students
James W. C. Pennington (1808-1870) and Alexander Crummell (1819-1898) studied at Yale from 1834 to 1837 and 1840 to 1841, respectively. Because they were Black, however, the university did not allow them to register formally for classes or matriculate for a degree. They could not participate in classroom discussions or access library resources.
The University of South Carolina’s First Building Named to Honor an African American
The University of South Carolina has renamed a residence hall to honor Celia Dial Saxon, who was born enslaved in 1857 but later had a 57-year career as an educator in South Carolina. Saxon attended the Normal School on the University of South Carolina campus when it was integrated during Reconstruction.
Two African American Men Win Prestigious Awards
Robert Bullard, the Distinguished Professor of Urban Planning and Environmental Policy at Texas Southern University has been selected to receive the Horizon Award from the Harvard Law School’s Environmental Law Society and James L. Moore III, the chief diversity officer at Ohio State University, received the Transformative Impact Award from the American Counseling Association.
The First African American to Deliver the Bampton Lectures at the University of Oxford
Willie James Jennings an associate professor of systematic theology at Yale Divinity School, has been selected to deliver the Bampton Lectures for 2023 at the University of Oxford in England. He is the first African American selected to give these lectures in the 243-year history of the program.
Camara Phyllis Jones Honored for Her Contributions to Health Education
Camara Phyllis Jones received the 2023 Elizabeth Fries Health Education Award from the CDC Foundation and the James F. and Sarah T. Fries Foundation. Dr. Jones was honored for her exceptional ability to educate about pathways linking racism to poor health outcomes.
Syracuse University’s Carrie Mae Weems Is the Winner of the 2023 Hasselblad Award
The Hasselblad Award is an international photography prize that is granted annually to a photographer recognized for major achievements. The award is often referred to as the “Nobel Prize” of photography. The award includes a monetary prize of about $188,000 and a gold medal.
The Center for the Study of Slavery and Justice at Brown University Named After...
Ten years ago, the Center for the Study of Slavery and Justice opened its doors at Brown University. The center’s creation inspired universities and other organizations around the world to take up the work of investigating their own ties to slavery. Now, the university has named the center in honor of President Emerita Ruth J. Simmons.
Cal Poly Pomona President Soraya M. Coley Honored by the American Council on Education
Dr. Coley is the first woman and first African American scholar to serve as president of California State Polytechnic University, Pomona. She will receive the 2023 Donna Shavlik Award from the American Council on Education at the Women’s Leadership Dinner at the American Council on Education's annual meeting in Washington, D.C.
School of Pharmacy at the University of Pittsburgh to Honor Its First Black Woman...
While Ella P. Stewart was at the University of Pittsburgh School of Pharmacy beginning in 2014, in classrooms White males had the first rows of seats, and they were followed, in descending order, by White females, then Jews, then Blacks.
Spelman College President Helene Gayle Honored for Her Philanthropic Work
Before becoming president of Spelman College in July 2022, Dr. Gayle was president and CEO of The Chicago Community Trust, one of the nation’s oldest and largest community foundations. Earlier, Dr. Gayle was president and CEO of CARE, a leading international humanitarian organization.
UCLA’s Kelly Lytle Hernández Wins the Bancroft Prize
Kelly Lytle Hernández holds the Thomas E. Lifka Chair of History at the University of California, Los Angeles. Dr. Lytle Hernández is also the director of the Ralph J. Bunche Center for African American Studies at UCLA.
Princeton University’s Ludovic Tangpi Wins an American Mathematical Society Fellowship
The AMS Claytor-Gilmer Fellowship is named for William Schieffelin Claytor and Gloria Ford Gilmer, the first African American man and woman to publish research articles in peer-reviewed mathematics journals. The year-long fellowship was established to further excellence in mathematics research and to help generate wider and sustained participation by Black mathematicians.
Two Black Scholars in the United States Win the Dan David Prize
The Dan David Prize is awarded by the Dan David Foundation at Tel Aviv University in Israel to up to nine early and mid-career scholars and practitioners in the historical disciplines. The honor comes with a $300,000 prize. Of this year's nine winners, two are Black scholars with university affiliations in the United States: Saheed Aderinto of Florida International University and Stephanie E. Jones-Rogers of the University of California, Berkeley.
Georgia State’s Elizabeth Armstrong-Mensah Earns Early Career Teaching Excellence Award
The Early Career Teaching Excellence Award is given to one faculty member each year from among the 138 member institutions in the Association of Schools and Programs of Public Health. The award recognizes faculty for outstanding teaching and mentoring of students in public health research, teaching, and practice.
Penn State’s Denise Okafor Wins the Mason Award for Women in the Chemical Sciences
First awarded in 2015, the Mason Award is a highly competitive award that attracts applications from the very best early-career female chemists across the country. Dr. Okafor's research focuses on understanding how protein function is regulated.
Princeton University’s Dan-el Padilla Peralta Wins Two Book Prizes
Dr. Padilla Peralta won the 2022 American Historical Association’s Herbert Baxter Adams Prize (given for an author’s first book in European history from ancient times through 1815) and was co-recipient of the 2022 Classical Association of the Middle West and South’s First Book Prize.
Harvard University’s Tiya Miles Wins Another Award for Her Book Ashley’s Sack
Tiya Miles, the Michael Garvey Professor of History and the Radcliffe Alumnae Professor at Harvard University, recently was awarded the 2022 Cundill History Prize by McGill University in Montreal. The $75,000 prize is given for a book that embodies historical scholarship, originality, literary quality, and broad appeal.
Tressie McMillan Cottom Is the Winner of the Gittler Prize from Brandeis University
The Joseph B. and Toby Gittler Prize was created in 2007 by the late Professor Joseph B. Gittler to recognize outstanding and lasting scholarly contributions to racial, ethnic, and/or religious relations. The annual award includes a $25,000 prize and a medal.
Robert Bullard Honored by the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education
The Lifetime Achievement Award from the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education honors outstanding leaders (both academics and practitioners) who have made significant contributions to the advancement of sustainability in higher education over their lifetimes. Dr. Bullard, Distinguished Professor at Texas Southern University, is the fifth recipient of this award.
Harvard University’s Tiya Miles Wins Another Award for Her Book Ashley’s Sack
Tiya Miles, the Michael Garvey Professor of History and the Radcliffe Alumnae Professor at Harvard University, recently was awarded the 2022 Cundill History Prize by McGill University in Montreal. The $75,000 prize is given for a book that embodies historical scholarship, originality, literary quality, and broad appeal.
Miriam Mobley Smith Honored by the American Society of Health-Systems Pharmacists
Miriam Mobley Smith is the interim dean of the Daniel K. Inouye College of Pharmacy at the University of Hawaiʻi at Hilo. Prior to coming to the University of Hawai'i in 2021, the veteran pharmacy academic served as interim dean and visiting professor at the Northeastern University Bourvé College of Health Sciences in Boston and as dean and tenured professor at the Chicago State University College of Pharmacy.
Kelly Brown Douglas Wins the Grawemeyer Award for Religion
Kelly Brown Douglas is dean of the Union Theological Seminary’s Episcopal Divinity School in New York City. She also serves as a canon theologian at Washington Cathedral. She is one of the first Black female Episcopal priests in the United States and the first Black person to head an Episcopal Church-affiliated educational institution.
Professor Jerrilyn McGregory Wins the Chicago Folklore Prize From the American Folklore Society
Jerrilyn McGregory, a professor of English at Florida State University, was honored for her book on Boxing Day traditions in the Anglicized Caribbean world, which encompasses the Bahamas, Belize, Bermuda, St. Croix, and St. Kitts.
Vaughn Booker Honored by the Council of Graduate Schools for His Book on Black...
The Arlt Award from the Council of Graduate Schools recognizes a young scholar-teacher who has written a book deemed to have made an outstanding contribution to scholarship in the humanities. Dr. Booker is the 52nd winner of the award.
La Marr Jurelle Bruce Wins First Book Award From the Modern Language Association
La Marr Jurelle Bruce is an associate professor of American studies at the University of Maryland, College Park. According to the Modern L:anguage Association selection committee's citation, "Bruce develops original and provocative readings across media and genres, and the impact of his work will be felt in multiple fields and disciplines."
Cynthia Nance Receives the Ruth Bader Ginsburg Lifetime Achievement Award
Nance, the Nathan G. Gordon Professor of Law at the school, is serving as dean of the school for a second time. She joined the faculty in 1994 and served as dean from 2006 to 2011. She was the first woman and the first person of color to serve as dean in the school's then-82-year history. In July 2022, she was named dean for the second time.
Grinnell College in Iowa Honors Its First Black Graduate
Edith Renfrow Smith was the only Black student on campus when she graduated with a degree in psychology in 1937. Now 108 years old, Renfrow Smith is the oldest living graduate of the college.
The Library of Congress Recognizes Rita Dove for Lifetime Achievement in Poetry
Rita Dove, the Henry Hoyns Professor of Creative Writing at the University of Virginia, received the 2022 Rebekah Johnson Bobbitt National Prize for Poetry for lifetime achievement from the Library of Congress. Professor Dove has published 11 collections of poetry. She served as Poet Laureate of the United States from 1993 to 1995 and won the Pulitzer Prize for poetry in 1987.
Nicole Joseph Honored for Her Work to Increase Opportunities for Black Girls in Mathematics
Dr. Joseph’s research stems from her own experience growing up feeling alone as a Black girl in a mathematics class where other students didn’t look like her. Her experiences shaped her drive to tell the stories of Black girls and women and how they differ from their White girl and Black male counterparts.
Four African Americans Receive Significant Honors From Louisiana State University
The School of Education and the Graduate School will be renamed to honor African Americans students who broke racial barriers at the university. The Design Building is being renamed for the university's first Black professor.
The American Geographical Society Honors Michigan State University’s Joe Darden
Joe T. Darden, Professor Emeritus in the department of geography, environment, and spatial sciences at Michigan State University, has been selected to receive the seventh Van Cleef Memorial Medal from the American Geographical Society for his distinguished work “in the field of urban geography.”
Yale University’s Braxton Shelley Wins Four Awards for His First Book
Braxton Shelley, an associate professor of music and sacred music at Yale Divinity School, has won four awards for his book Healing for the Soul: Richard Smallwood, the Vamp, and the Gospel Imagination. The book uses the work of renowned gospel musician Richard Smallwood to explore the significance of vamp (a recurring musical phrase or chord progression) in Black gospel tradition and its potent and transformative spiritual power.
Harvard University’s Makeda Best Created the Photography Catalogue of the Year
Makeda Best, the Richard L. Menschel Curator of Photography at the Harvard Art Museums, recently received the prestigious Photography Catalogue of the Year award at the 2022 Paris Photo–Aperture PhotoBook Awards. Dr. Best was honored for her 2021 publication Devour the Land: War and American Landscape Photography Since 1970.
Rutgers University Newark’s John Keene Wins National Book Award for Poetry
John Keene is a Distinguished Professor and chair of Africana studies at Rutgers University Newark. He also is a professor of English and teaches in the master of fine arts program in creative writing. Professor Keene was honored for his 234-page collection entitled Punks: New & Selected Poems.
